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I'm trying to install Emacs 25.1.rc1 on Ubuntu 15.10, and have pre-installed the usual dependencies i.e.:

  • autoconf
  • automake
  • libtool
  • texinfo
  • build-essential
  • xorg-dev
  • libgtk2.0-dev
  • libjpeg-dev
  • libncurses5-dev
  • libdbus-1-dev
  • libgif-dev
  • libtiff-dev
  • libm17n-dev
  • libpng12-dev
  • librsvg2-dev
  • libotf-dev
  • libxml2-dev

However, when I inspect the output of ./configure libxml2/xml2 is off and when I make && make install emacs and run it, M-x eww says Emacs wasn't compiled with libxml2

I need help!

UPDATE

I had previously installed using Linuxbrew, which had installed pkg-config as a dependency. (ed. Yes, I know, well it seemed like a good idea at the time!)

Removed it and recompiled Emacs. Configure finds and reports libxml2 as expected.

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  • Try with configure --with_xml2 and see if there is any errors in config.log about the said xml2 libs. Otherwiae it should get enabled in configure's summary.
    – Lompik
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 12:03
  • What does pkg-config --modversion libxml-2.0 give ?
    – politza
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 12:37
  • @politza pkg-config --modversion libxml-2.0 Package libxml-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path. Perhaps you should add the directory containing libxml-2.0.pc' to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable No package 'libxml-2.0' found`
    – ocodo
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 17:33
  • @Lompik if you mean --with-xml2 I've already attempted that.
    – ocodo
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 17:35
  • 2
    See the update on the question. (Solved) The problem is pkg-config was installed in two locations. Loving the sarcasm though, great feels for a Q&A site.
    – ocodo
    Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 10:35

2 Answers 2

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This problem was caused by pkg-config being installed in two places. Once by apt, the other time by Linuxbrew. The path was finding the Linuxbrew pkg-config copy first, which was configured to look in non-standard locations for libraries.

While this is problem is specific to the site, it's important to note that pkg-config will report that a package isn't installed when it is (if it's not configured to look in the right place.)

Tip: always check the location of utilities (using which) to make sure the system is configured as you expect/assume.

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3

I've just solved the same problem, trying to install Emacs 25.1.rc1 on Ubuntu 15.10, by installing: apt install libxml2-dev before calling ./configure.

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